Rwandan refugee to share her life story tonight in Portsmouth

PORTSMOUTH — A Dover woman who fled Rwanda with her family will speak publicly about her experience for the first time tonight at the Seacoast African American Cultural Center in Portsmouth.

The talk by Francine Ndayisaba is part of a monthlong series of events taking place at SAACC in conjunction with a new photo exhibition on view until the end of November. Titled “Africa is Not a Country,” the collection showcases the diversity of experience on the African continent through fine art photography.

Ndayisaba, who has lived in the United States for 14 years, will discuss the challenges and rewards of leaving Rwanda to begin a new life here as a refugee.

Ndayisaba was born in Kigali, Rwanda. She has three brothers who still live in the country, along with her mother. In 1996, she married Narcisse Rugira, with whom she had one daughter, Tara in 1997.

After being granted political asylum in 1998, Francine came to the United States with her daughter the following year and began studying at the University of New Hampshire. Her husband would not join them until 2009.

Ndayisaba received a bachelor’s degree in accounting from UNH in 2002 and an MBA from Plymouth State University. She is a certified public accountant and certified internal auditor, and works at UNH.

While the Seacoast African American Cultural Center hosts a range of events each year, this month’s exhibition and event series has generated significant interest, according to volunteer Susan Manfull.

The exhibit includes more than 80 photographs, depicting 24 African countries. The pictures were taken by photographers who hail from as far away as South Africa and Senegal and as close as Portsmouth.

“We really had no idea that it would turn into the huge and, I think, very successful project that it is,” Manfull said Wednesday. “It just commanded so much interest on the part of local people, and throughout the country.”

The photographs will be on view at the Cultural Center, located at 10 Middle St. through Nov. 30. The collection reflects the “culture, people, wildlife, and landscape” of the continent, according to a SAACC announcement.

Proceeds from the show will benefit SAACC’s efforts to establish a permanent exhibit about the newly discovered early 18th-century African Burying Ground in Portsmouth.

The idea for the photography show originated several years ago when Audrey Gottlieb, a former UN photographer, and several other local art enthusiasts attended a SAACC exhibit of photographs of Burkina Faso.

SAACC received more than 150 submissions after announcing plans for this month’s exhibition. The list of photographers who contributed work includes former chief UN photographer John Isaac, London-based photographer John Kenny, University of Southern Mississippi adjunct photography professor Betty Press and Dominic Chavez, a documentary photographer based in Boston.

“The photographs in “Africa is not a Country” are very compelling,” Susan Strickler, director and CEO of the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, said in a prepared statement. “They show the strength and beauty of the people who make up this vast continent in a changing landscape from wilderness to gritty shanty towns and they evoke a range of emotions from awe and power to tenderness and lightheartedness.”

“More information about “Africa Is Not A Country,” including the accompanying lectures, movies and music, is available online at www.AfricaIsNotACountry.org.

Visit http://www.saacc-nh.org for more information about SAACC.

Information provided by the Seacoast African American Cultural Center was used in this report.